Joshua Kendall, editorial director of Mulholland Books, recommends five books that were recommended to him that are sure to keep you turning the pages. Continue the tradition and send this list on to another reader in your life. read

Marcus Sakey's

Favorite Made-Up Genre

The author of the new thriller Afterlife has selected six novels that present our recognizable world... but with a twist. read

Hala Alyan

Transporting Fiction

Hala Alyan, author of the debut novel Salt Houses, recommends five books sure to take you to another place. read

Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Looking West

In this list of recommendations, L.A. transplant and author of the massive hit novel The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney writes about some of her favorite books that explore The Golden State. read

Dawn Tripp

Fictional Reinventions

The bestselling author of Georgia, Dawn Tripp, recommends five novels that reassemble and illuminate the lives of their subjects. Each of these books takes a figure—either from history or literature—and gives them new life on the page. READ

Ed Park and Richard Polt

Getting to Know Harry Stephen Keeler

January 22nd marks the 50th anniversary of prolific mystery and sci-fi writer Harry Stephen Keeler's death. We asked writer and editor (and Keeler fan) Ed Park and Richard Polt, professor of philosophy at Xavier University and head of the Harry Stephen Keeler Society to choose some of their favorite Keeler novels. READ MORE

Peter Straub

In Poe's Shadow

In honor of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday on January 19th we asked master horror writer Peter Straub (and editor of the anthology Poe's Children: The New Horror) to share five authors who he sees as the heirs to Poe's writing. READ MORE

Richard Cohen

The Write Stuff

We are all too familiar with the difficulties of writing, whether it's writer's block, problems with character development, or finding the right ending. When in doubt, turn to an expert for advice! How To Write Like Tolstoy author Richard Cohen presents this list of books on writing by some of his favorite authors, including Edith Wharton, Stephen King, Norman Mailer, and more. READ MORE

Matt Bell

Five Deeply Strange Reads

Shifts in time, changelings, organic buildings, levitating grandmothers, and all things odd inhabit this list from Matt Bell, author of A Tree or a Person or a Wall. Matt has selected five books from small presses that investigate the strange and challenge our notions of reality. READ MORE

Andrew Gross

Writing the Holocaust

"In Andrew Gross's new book, the historical thriller The One Man, physicist Alfred Mendl is imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. Thousands of miles away, intelligence officer Nathan Blum is given the assignment to try to break Mendl out, and with him, the information to help win the war for the Allies." READ MORE

Sassafras Lowrey

Queer Literature Top Five

The author of Lost Boi picks five of hir current favorites from LGBTQ fiction.

"Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) literature is a growing genre filled with a diverse array of novels that are pushing the literary envelope. These works of fiction challenge readers to explore worlds beyond conventional definitions and understandings of sexuality and gender identity/expression."

The author of When We Were Animals selects five fictional books that reflect on the art form.

""I suppose what...readers admire about storytelling is its capacity to blend into real life, to erase the line between fiction and reality. But I’m not one of those readers. I like art because it’s art—because it’s different from reality—because it’s (all right, I’ll say it) better than reality." READ MORE

Elizabeth Marro

Five Over Fifty

The author of Casualties picks five books by authors who got their start a little later in life.

"Sometimes a writer has to live a little before that first novel. Sometimes she has to live a little longer. Here are five debut books by authors who first published when they were over fifty—and then kept going. They prove that it is worth the wait." READ MORE

Jennifer Haigh

Constant Cravings

The author of the new novel Heat and Light, suggests seven books about addiction.

"My new book, Heat and Light, is a novel about the fracking boom in Pennsylvania. In a deeper way, it’s also a story about addiction, that perverse human compulsion to poison ourselves in much the way heavy industry poisons the land." READ MORE

Domnica Radulescu

Thieves of Language

The author of Country of Red Azaleas presents this list of recommended reading focused on women's journeys, voices, and visions.

"The French writer and feminist philosopher Hélène Cixous urged women to be thieves of language as well as to fly with language. The French language very conveniently offers such a beautiful semantic overlap as the word voler means both to steal and to fly." READ MORE

"I write about crime—whether it’s a murder committed by a member of my own family or one that comes out of a world of my own. I also read about crime and have since I was old enough to get a library card." READ MORE

Dexter Palmer

Five Long Reads

The author of the highly praised new novel Version Control uses his dissertation on Joyce, Gaddis, and Pynchon as inspiration for this list of weighty tomes.

"These are five books that have their unusual size in common: all are a thousand pages or more. Don’t let that scare you away, though: let me try to convince you that these are worth picking up for reasons other than strengthening your biceps." READ MORE